April 2010
30 posts
5 tags
Apr 29th
6 notes
6 tags
“[W]e cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our...”
– Thoughts on Flash Sometimes I wonder why this is so hard to grasp. Having played the underdog role for so long, Apple has learned this lesson the hard way. Perhaps the most high-profile case is that of Microsoft Word. Word version 5.1a on the Macintosh is considered by many to be the best...
Apr 29th
iPhone Development: iPad Max Touches →
heroicautobot: So, can the iPhone SDK track 10 fingers at once? Yep. It sure can. I wrote a simple program to just record the count of the touches set provided to the four UIResponder touch-related methods, and it had no problem identifying and tracking 10 separate fingers at the same time. For as long as I’ve known that the trackpads on the unibody MacBooks can track 11 touches, I’ve...
Apr 28th
2 tags
iPhone Development: WWDC First Time Guide, 2010... →
Essential reading. Also, note that Jeff’s advice regarding the Apple engineers you meet at the parties also applies to other people. Jeff’s a Real Ale sort of guy. I like vodka. Wil Shipley had sweet things last time I saw him (something involving orange liqueur IIRC), and the Delicious Librarians will accept G&Ts, Rye & Dry (callously made with Bourbon rather than the more...
Apr 28th
4 notes
3 tags
Apr 27th
11 notes
6 tags
Lost iPhone prototype spurs police probe →
nsurl: Looks like the cops are going after Gizmodo. Let that be a lesson. Confidential Information and Property are quite different in the eyes of the law. Dissemination of another party’s information isn’t always a crime. Doing the same with their property usually is.
Apr 23rd
7 notes
1 tag
“HuffPost Books is launching a new weekly feature: a list of eBook bestsellers...”
– eBook Bestsellers From Kobo @ Huffington Post Kobo and HuffPost, sittin’ in a tree…
Apr 23rd
4 notes
3 tags
Apr 19th
3 notes
Anonymous asked: hi alan
any way of easily connecting an apple tv to sdtv - ie one with no component or hdmi??

cheers

daniel
Apr 18th
3 tags
“The Great: The Kobo iPad application. This is the future of books. Brilliant. It...”
– The National Post tests the Kobo eReader. They list the Good, then the Bad. Then they list the Great: which is just our iPad app. Excellent work team— /me feels like a proud father today :o)
Apr 18th
6 tags
Apr 17th
416 notes
4 tags
Let Them Eat Cake
Anyone who follows me on Twitter has no doubt noticed my ire towards any US-based company who treats everywhere outside the US as unimportant. Apple is one of these, and it really pisses me off. I’d like to develop applications for the iPad. I personally am lucky enough to work for a large company based right next to the US border, so we were able to get some of these devices. Others are...
Apr 14th
5 notes
Apr 13th
1 note
4 tags
“Evil is baby killing… pogroms… serial killers… the Jonah Brothers. You know, bad...”
– Jeff LaMarche shares one of my own pet peeves. To condense Jeff’s longer post, in my own words: when someone does something which is detrimental to others, it’s not evil. Evil is skinning babies, conspiring towards genocide, that sort of thing. Causing some aggravation to someone else...
Apr 13th
5 tags
Running Universal iPad/iPhone Apps in the...
So a couple of days ago I was getting irked by the fact that my Universal app always runs in iPad mode in the Simulator. The application contains code for both the iPad, using all the nice new OS 3.2 APIs, and for the iPhone using 3.0 APIs. However, since it needs to be built against the 3.2 SDK, launching it from Xcode installs it only on the 3.2 Simulator, which only runs in iPad mode. All in...
Apr 13th
14 notes
“We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40...”
– 9 41 9 42: The secret of Apple’s recurring numbers Scott Forstall reveals the reason for the iPhone and iPad’s use of ‘9:42’ and ‘9:41’ time in all their promotional material. Fantastic!
Apr 12th
5 tags
“All in all, the iPad won’t change the game as much as, say, Kobo, which is...”
– How the iPad will deliver books from bondage - The Globe and Mail Also nice is their use of the Kobo iPad app for their leading image :o)
Apr 11th
2 notes
Apr 8th
3 tags
“The government forced through the controversial digital economy bill with the...”
– The Guardian: Digital economy bill rushed through wash-up in late night session Assclowns. This makes me ashamed to be British.
Apr 8th
1 note
Apr 8th
4 tags
Marco.org: iBooks and private APIs →
iBooks’ use of tons of private APIs is frustrating on a few levels, the biggest that it makes all third-party reading-related apps second-class citizens. I won’t be able to offer many features that iBooks has (such as a true brightness control or integration with the system dictionary), but my… Marco comes to much the same conclusion as I did with Pages. Of course, Pages really...
Apr 6th
82 notes
3 tags
Apr 5th
Apr 5th
5 tags
Apr 5th
3 tags
Apr 3rd
2 tags
Why Buy Kobo over iBooks?
From the company blog: Here’s a quick snapshot of what makes the Kobo iPad app rock: It’s FREE: We want everyone to be able to enjoy Kobo on the iPad. Full use of iPad’s large screen: The app provides an immersive eReading experience. Original books – no standardizing of content: For the first time, all books read on the iPad will be full ePub files, as intended by the author, editor and...
Apr 3rd
3 tags
“Duis aute irure dolor iPad in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse CEO Steve...”
– Jason Kottke: Lorem iPad LOVE IT Go read the whole thing now.
Apr 3rd
3 tags
Apr 3rd
6 tags
Apr 3rd
3 tags
“It all just kills me. It literally makes me sick to my stomach. I am sitting...”
– A reply to Cory Doctorow’s now-infamous post by Joel Johnson of Gizmodo My own note to Cory Doctorow: People like you still exist. They’re growing up all the time. There are 12 and 13-year-olds writing iPhone and iPad applications already. Just like there are young children who use...
Apr 2nd